On tour with Olli at Seven Bees Cafe

9th March.

Ok, so we weren't on tour per se, but we were playing a gig that day. The band I am currently in, The Red Diamond Dragon Club, had a gig at Sticky Mike's Frog Bar which meant that Oliver Daffarn was in town. We'd had a couple of practices earlier on in the week and had managed to squeeze in some recording at home the day before, during which time Olli had been holed up in our living room in front of his computer, mixing and a-tinkering pretty much constantly. He needed a break. Fast.

I first met Olli back at college where he was a recording mentor to my band at the time, Philanthropy, and once I moved to Exeter to attend university he stepped in to become a fully-fledged member. We had some good times in that band, the highlight probably being a support slot at a show at the Kentish Town Forum, although playing on the bill at the Great Dorset Steam Fair comes pretty close. He is certainly the most talented musician I know, with guitar skills second to none. Despite this, he spends an awful amount of time playing synths and magic electronic boxes that make booms and bangs and all sorts of percussive noises. He likes to defy expectations like that.

Now though, we were in a new band (as were Graham and Tim, two other Philanthropists), playing our first gig in months. As Olli is going away travelling for an indefinite period of time in the summer we have to make the most of his presence while we can. It's a shame in some respects as right now we seem to be building up a wee bit of musical momentum, with several gigs lined up over the next couple of months and positive feedback flooding in from all sides. Olli will have a great time travelling though. Although he has been working a job he has always wanted to do, being able to work with some impressive musicians and downright ace people, he has been working those long, long hours for a while now. It's time for the bird to have some freedom. He needs to fly. In and around the Himalayas. He's going to have a great time.

That's way off in the future though. For the moment, the most important thing was the gig, and for the gig to be a success we needed to be well fed. We had been promised some free beer, and the great enemy of free beer is the empty stomach. I mentioned this project to Olli and he was excited about becoming a part of it, and so we struck out from the house with hope in our hearts and fire in our bellies. His first suggestion was that we go somewhere near the seafront, and this called to mind a suggestion I had had from my housemate Stu about a cafe relatively close to the front called Seven Bees. This felt apt. Our previous flat in Brighton had been a 7B, and many RDDC activities had taken place there in the past. It seemed like the right choice, so we headed over to Seven Bees using our trusty magic phones to guide us. In the end it turned out that the cafe wasn't on the seafront at all, but in fact just a few metres away from Sticky Mike's Frog Bar. It was destiny. We had come full circle.

I was struck, on entry, on how homely the cafe felt. It could have been a dining room in someone's house. The place had a wonderful community feel; there were ceramics on the wall made by a local artist, there were newspaper articles on the wall for community and charity projects. The condiments were in squeezy bottles and sunflower tablecloths adorned each table. A radio was playing The Smiths and The Human League. The room felt like the interior of a ship. We felt very comfortable, and as soon as we had sat down the table was cleaned swiftly and our orders were taken.  Yep, it was as though we were guests in someone's home, and that home happened to be a particularly lovely houseboat.

And so, the breakfast:

Veggie Breakfast

Egg, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, toast and a delicious fried potato latke

(with filter coffee or tea added for £1)

Veggie Breakfast - £5.95

I was excited about the latke. I imagined it would be similar to a hash brown, but I was not expecting it to be quite what it was. Olli described it as "a potato bhaji", which I think describes it quite aptly. It made an interesting change to the usual way potato is delivered onto the breakfast plate, and in the absence of sausage it provided a wholly different textural experience to the other pieces on the plate.

Flavour-wise, it didn't offer anything outside of the normal potato realm. This was a theme that spread through most of the meal. The mushrooms, toast and beans all tasted thoroughly representative of the wider families of mushrooms, toast and beans. They tasted pure, untainted by augmentary flavours. This was particularly striking in the case of the mushrooms, who normally absorb so readily the tastes and notes of their surroundings.

Olli teaches Birdy how to play guitar

'Pure' might be a good word to describe the Seven Bees breakfast. All of the menus had a little biography explaining the history of the cafe, along with their mission statement of only using fresh, locally sourced produce (fitting in further with the community feel). I think this showed, as the whole meal felt wholesome in a way that I had not experienced in a long time. This is not the usual feeling you encounter when entering a cafe and ordering a cooked breakfast. The wholesome nature of the meal was possibly exemplified by the baked beans that were firmer than others, hearty and strangely filling. Again, the taste was not anything special, but the overall feeling created was.

There was, however, one item that did have that little je ne sais quoi that the other components were missing. The tomato, so often a steady and uninteresting journeyman on the breakfast plate, here it was elevated to the rank of hero, heralded as a fastbreaking saviour. It tasted brilliant, bright and fruity. Truly celestial. Truly mouthfeel. This was an area of breakfast that really benefited from the fresh produce policy. It certainly made up for the fried egg, whose white I felt was rather overdone to the point of being crispy (although the yolk was strong and flowed thickly). It provided the spark that was absent from the other items, and prevented the dish from feeling like a healthy also-ran.

Seven Bees Cafe was awarded the title of Brighton's Best Fry-Up by Source Magazine in 2010. It certainly has a lot going for it; in terms of a breakfasting venue I cannot fault it. Both environment and staff were absolutely first-class. They were open to swapping items around on the menu, providing a hospitable element of flexibility to the eating experience. Generosity also came in the form of a massive mug for my coffee. In terms of taste and presentation, the meal certainly wasn't as great as others I've had so far, but the overall experience was more positive than most on account of the delightfulness of the venue. It was also refreshing to feel revitalised and recharged rather than just full up upon finishing the meal, showing that the 'spoonful of grease' approach is not the only way to provide a breakfast that is homely and hearty. So, whilst I probably wouldn't want to award Seven Bees with 'Brighton's Best Fry-Up', I'd certainly consider awarding it 'Brighton's Warmest Fry-Up', in every sense of the word.

Function: surprisingly rejuvenating, very homely 4/5
Adherence to canon: Yes
Taste: did the job, only the tomato truly shining 3/5
Value: apt pricing and supporting local business  3/5
Presentation: lushrooms (lush-looking mushrooms) but sloppy elsewhere 3/5
Venue: felt like going to a friend's house. Should be six out of five 5/5

Overall: gets a nobility +0.5 bonus - 4/5

If you want to read a wee blog about how they got Seven Bees Cafe started, check out this old blog here.